The Enforcement Directorate has lost all credibility and is a “puppet” that the Bharatiya Janata Party uses for “settling personal scores”, Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala said on Tuesday, hours after the Supreme Court’s order on the central agency’s chief.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that the two extensions given to incumbent Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra in November 2021 and November 2022 were illegal. The court, however, permitted Kumar to continue in his position till July 31 after the Centre expressed concerns about finding a new chief.
The bench observed that extensions were in violation of the Supreme Court’s 2021 judgement in which it had directed the government not to extend Mishra’s tenure any further. In November 2021, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, the government had introduced two ordinances to ensure that the directors of the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation could have tenures of up to five years.
Surjewala and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra were among the petitioners challenging the extensions granted to Mishra on November 17, 2021, and November 17, 2022.
On Tuesday, Surjewala said that in view of the Supreme Court ruling, all actions taken by Mishra after the 2021 extension could be considered “illegal and tainted”.
He sought an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked: “Should there be not affixation of responsibility of the political leaders and Officers, who gave the two illegal extensions to ED director on 17th November, 2021 and 17th November, 2022; be it the PM himself?”
Surjewala described the Supreme Court verdict as a victory of justice. “This is a vindication of our stand on brazen misuse and compromise of ED for political vendetta by Modi government for targeting political opponents as also businessmen to spread terror,” he said.
Moitra, in a tweet, described the verdict as being among “small victories for the ship of democracy”.
In another tweet, she said: “BJP – we shall fight you in the polls, we shall fight you in the courts. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall never surrender.”
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that those who were happy about the court’s verdict were being “delusional for various reasons”. He said that the court had upheld the amendments introduced to extend tenures of CBI and Enforcement Directorate chiefs to up to five years.
“Powers of the ED to strike at those who are corrupt and on the wrong side of the law remain the same,” Shah tweeted. “...Who the ED director is – that is not important because whoever assumes this role will take note of the rampant corruption of a cozy club of entitled dynasts who have an anti-development mindset.”
However, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal questioned why the government gave Mishra a third extension if individuals were not important. “Some individuals serve the political interests of the party in power!” the senior advocate said in a tweet.
Under Mishra’s tenure, the Enforcement Directorate has launched an investigation against several leaders of the Opposition such as Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool Congress’ Abhishek Banerjee, National Congress leaders Sharad Pawar, Ajit Pawar, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik, National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, among others.
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